In the digital age, organizations increasingly rely on digitally-stored data. To protect against data loss, an organization may use a backup system to back up important data. In some cases, an organization may handle and store data via virtual machines. Accordingly, a backup system may back up a virtual machine disk image to preserve data handled by a virtual machine.
Unfortunately, backup and restore systems may consume significant amounts of computing resources. For instance, backups may consume storage space, and transferring data for backing up and/or restoring data may consume I/O bandwidth and network bandwidth. Additionally, the more data there is to backup and/or restore, the longer backup and restore operations may take to perform. By competing for computing resources, backup and restore operations may sometimes interfere with the performance of primary applications.
In an attempt to improve the efficiency and flexibility of restorations, an organization may, in addition to backing up a virtual machine disk image, create a separate backup of files (e.g., corresponding to a specific application) within the virtual machine disk image that the organization may wish to restore without restoring the entire virtual machine disk image. Unfortunately, such redundant backups may consume additional computing resources up front in the attempt to improve the efficiency and flexibility of later restorations. Accordingly, the instant disclosure identifies and addresses a need for additional and improved systems and methods for restoring application data.